Starent to settle lawsuit over Cisco deal

TEWKSBURY, Mass. (AP) – Starent Networks Corp., a maker of equipment for wireless networks, said Friday that it had agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit over its pending acquisition by Cisco Systems Inc.

Tewksbury, Mass.-based Starent has agreed to pay the plaintiff's legal costs and has provided some clarifications to the financial analysis that underpinned the board's decision to accept Cisco's offer of $2.9 billion in cash. That deal was announced Oct. 13.

The lawsuit, which sought class action status on behalf of Starent shareholders, was filed Oct. 20 in Delaware's Chancery Court by a union pension fund. It alleged that Starent's board failed in their duty by accepting an offer price that was too low.

Starent made a regulatory filing on Nov. 9 with a detailed chronology of the deal and an analysis of the board's reasoning. With the settlement, it provided some supplemental explanations of the financial analysis.

Two other suits seeking class action status have been filed against the company over the terms of the Cisco deal.